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De Witt's Colony.

APPENDIX III.DE WITT'S PETITION.1(TRANSLATION.)Most Excellent Sir: I, Green De Witt, a citizen of the UnitedStates of North America, appear before your excellency to makeknown to you that I have come to this country seeking to obtainpermission to colonize with four hundred industrious Catholicfamilies those lands of the ancient province of Texas (now an in-tegral portion of this State) which are included within limits that Ishall shall herein designate. These immigrants shall be required tosubject themselves to the religious, civil, and political laws of thecountry which henceforth they adopt as their own, and in estab-lishing themselves therein, they shall respect the rights of all pre-vious settlers, as provided by the colonization law which the honor-able congress of this state has just passed. Moreover, there shallbe brought into this colony only such families as are known to berespectable and industrious. I therefore beg you to grant to me,your petitioner, those lands that are included within the followinglimits, in order that I may settle upon them the four hundred fam-ilies above mentioned: Beginning on the right bank of Arroyode la Vaca at a distance of the reserved ten leagues from the coast,adjoining the colony of Stephen Austin on the east, the line shallgo up the river to the Bejar-Nacogdoches road; it shall follow thisroad until it reaches a point two leagues to the west of GuadalupeRiver; thence it shall run parallel with the river down to theParaje de los Mosquitos; and following the inner edge of the ten-league coast reservation, it shall close the boundaries of the grantat the point of beginning.We are also desirous that respectable families of this country[Mexico] shall come to settle with us, not only in order to con-tract enduring friendship with them, but also in order to acquirethe use of the language of the nation that we now adopt as ourown and the ability to give perfect instruction therein to our chil-dren. Therefore I humbly beg you to grant my petition.GREEN DE WITT.Saltillo, April 7, 1825.Conditions upon which is allowed the projected introduction byGreen De Witt, a citizen of the United States of North America,of four hundred families as colonists into the department ofTexas.1st. Inasmuch as the plan presented in the preceding memo-rial by the person concerned conforms to the colonization law ofthe honorable congress of the state, adopted March 24, the gov-ernment consents to it, and, therefore, in fulfillment of article 81 Empresario Contracts, 27-31.